Nerlens Noel, the Boston product who played high school ball at the Tilton School (New Hampshire) and college at the University of Kentucky who somehow inexplicably fell to the the number six pick position and the Pelicans in last year's draft (subsequently traded to the 76ers for guard Jrue Holiday) has aspirations of making his NBA debut against his hometown Celtics on April 4.

Nerlens Noel has yet to play an NBA game this season, after being selected sixth overall in last summer’s draft by the Pelicans and then being traded to the Sixers in exchange for Jrue Holiday.

Philadelphia is the team most associated with tanking this season (i.e., willingly losing games due to lack of personnel), and not rushing Noel back to action, at least initially, was viewed as being part of the team’s strategy.

But Noel is getting closer. And with the Sixers near the bottom of the league-wide standings, there’s no reason to hold him out if he’s truly ready to play, as he could gain some valuable real-world experience over the final few weeks of the regular season.